The fundamental idea about the blockchain is to create new blocks for transaction sets by arranging them into blockchains and sending them into the network.

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Changes in the global financial model, the resulting reluctance of financial institution to accept bitcoin, and the limited availability of places that accept cryptocurrency transactions, all hamper blockchain’s expansion. However, slowly but surely, financial institutions are jumping on the bandwagon and joining the revolution, some because they have become aware of the new trend and the emergence of this new market; others because they know their significance is bound to diminish in the near future unless they do. Similarly, the number of physical and virtual places that accept the cryptocurrency is growing steadily. The greatest potential hindrance looking forward may lie in the processing capacity of the global blockchain system and how easy it is going to be to have bitcoin transactions supported, if they are supported at all.

One of the stages in designing and testing complex systems are stress tests, i.e. performance tests run at what is expected to be the maximum load. Note that in relation to the bitcoin system, which spans the globe, such tests would have to target its dispersed data processing sites, and, in fact the entire Internet, with a range of conventional peer-to-peer networks.

Blockchain, whose popularity has grown in lockstep with developments in the cryptocurrency market (Bitcoin, Ethereum, et. al.), is poised to expand into new territories. The energy industry, which is decentralizing gradually, may well advance blockchain more than the financial system will. Or, it may simply adopt it more extensively, sooner.

It is not easy to imagine a technology that will receive as much publicity as the blockchain did last year but there’s little doubt that other new and innovative technologies will make even greater inroads into our daily lives in 2019.

Rapid progress in artificial intelligence will continue to be made and be widely reported. Autonomous vehicles will proliferate, and it would be good to see serious, in-depth articles about industry regulation rather than last year’s sensational coverage focusing on accidents and disasters.

The financial crash of 2008 demonstrated (to some) that large financial institutions need to be closely watched and strictly regulated. The meltdown some believe also demonstrated the need for an alternative to complex, abuse-prone financial instruments held by few, and understood by even fewer.